Winter Games 2022
Olympia curious: Russian and Canadian ice hockey players compete against each other with FFP2 masks
At the ice hockey game between Canada and Russia, the players competed with FFP2 masks under their visors
© David Josek/AP/DPA
Curious performance at the women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament. The match between Russia and Canada started an hour late. Then the players also wore FFP2 masks under their visors.
Protective masks are usually standard in ice hockey. But the fact that the teams still put on corona masks under the visors is unusual even in these pandemic times. In the preliminary round match between Canada and Russia at the women’s Olympic ice hockey tournament, there was initially an hour of confusion because gold favorite Canada did not appear on the ice at the scheduled start of the game at 12:10 p.m. local time in Beijing. Finally, after a good hour delay, the players of both teams ran up with corona protective masks under their full visors.
The Russian players drove around at the original date before Canada coach Roy Ryan appeared at the boards and spoke to the officials. From then on, the game was officially considered late, after several laps on the ice, the Russians returned to the dressing room after about 40 minutes.
Officially “for safety reasons” the game was rescheduled for 1:15 p.m. local time. In fact, the players finally entered the ice surface with masks. Nothing was initially known about the exact background.
The Canadian television broadcaster Sportsnet reported that the Canadians initially refused to compete because their opponents had not submitted negative corona test results. There is no official confirmation of this yet.
The Russians had had six positive corona cases in the past few days, so the entire team had been in isolation in the Olympic village for three days.
The game finally ended 6:1 for the favorites from Canada.